Mini projectors are increasingly popular but their small dimensions have so far not been married to big performance. Can Samsung’s SP-P410M reverse the trend?

Most mini projectors lack punch and verve and just don’t have the brightness to do the job. However, the Samsung SP-P410M does enough in the performance and style stakes to justify its price.

Projectors have been one of the last pieces of IT equipment to undergo full-on miniaturisation, but now it’s very much the trend. However, we've yet to see a strong contender to match the hype and promises, such as this 3M Micro Professional Projector MPro110.

Most haven't been pocket-sized, while resolutions and brightness levels have simply failed to hit satisfactory levels. And then there are the prices: should they really cost as much as a full-sized office projector?

Samsung's SP-P410M certainly doesn't address all of these issues, but it does raise the bar in a few key areas. For a start, the 170-lumen LED lamp puts it far ahead of recent rivals for brightness, approaching a level at which it's genuinely usable in a non-darkened room. You'll still struggle to discern differences in the darker shades of grey and black, but it's fine for an impromptu presentation where you can't control the lighting.

The 800 x 600 picture is sharp and evenly lit, and the 56in diagonal at a 2m distance isn't bad. Keystone correction isn't automatic, but wasn't difficult to apply manually, and there are the usual menu options for changing the aspect ratio, adjusting the colours and applying preset picture modes.

Then there's the built-in audio: a pair of 1W stereo speakers that emit enough volume to more than fill a room. Look past the expected lack of bass and they'll likely be much louder than those in the laptop you've connected them to. We watched a variety of movie clips and played music, and at no point did the audio crackle or distort, even at maximum volume.